July / August
2005
Dear members and
friends of
There's a compelling legend
about Saint Francis, the kindly thirteenth century monk, who one day informed
his brethren that he planned to go into the nearby village on a preaching
mission. He invited a novice to go along.
On their way, they passed an injured man and Francis promptly stopped,
saw to the poor fellow's needs and arranged medical care for him. They went on
and soon passed a homeless man who was near starvation. Again, Francis stopped
his journey and ministered to the hungry, homeless man.
So it went, through the day: people in need, Francis lovingly caring for
them as best he could, until the sun was low in the sky. He told his novice
friend it was now time for them to return to the monastery for evening prayers.
But the young man said, "Father, you said we were coming to town to
preach to the people." Francis smiled. Then he said, "My friend,
that's what we've been doing all day."
E. Carver McGriff in his book Times of Refreshing,
writes of the above story: “That's evangelism at its most faithful. Ministry to people in their need. Not worrying about
numerical growth, or adding to one's own conversion record, or winning acclaim
within the denomination. Evangelism is sharing the love of God in concrete form
among God's people.”
Now I know that there are those who would argue the point. They may call such a statement heresy. They would contend that for “evangelism” to
take place, Law and Gospel must be clearly verbalized and articulated. They would insist that ministering to the
physical needs of hurting people is “social gospel” rather than “evangelism”.
I don’t intend to argue terminology in this short article. I do maintain, however, that some church
bodies seem willingly to address only the physical
needs of hurting people, while others are content to only speak the words of God’s love without any attempt
to alleviate physical suffering.
As I see it, the majority of church bodies and the greater part of
Christians fall somewhere in the middle: weak in showing compassion to those
with physical suffering, and equally weak in sharing the Word of God with those
who are outside the Kingdom.
Frankly, what we in-the-middle-Christians do is downright disgusting and
despicable! We criticize those who lean
too far to the left or too far to the right, while doing precious little to
bring about positive change. We do a lot
of talking and debating and arguing about what should be done, but end up doing
little if anything! And what’s even
worse: we then try to justify our non-actions!
We make excuse for our inactivity and idleness!
As Jesus walked the dusty Judean roads, His heart went out to all in need. He stopped to help those with physical
needs. He took time to help those with
spiritual needs. He preached the
Word. He lived the Word. He didn’t waste time needlessly disputing
which was more important: healing a person’s physical blindness or curing one’s spiritual blindness.
He knew – and we know – that dealing with spiritual blindness had
eternal consequences and was therefore the more critical issue. But that didn’t keep Him from doing both.
You may be tempted
to refuse to help someone who is hurting physically or emotionally because,
“Hey, I can’t help everyone!” That’s very true. However, you aren’t being asked to help everyone. Just this one. It may help to imagine yourself
as the one in need. Think of how
relieved you would feel when someone finally looked into your tear-stained,
bloodshot eyes with compassion and said “What can I do
to help?’
Likewise, we might
be tempted to remain quiet when confronted with another’s spiritual
darkness. “That’s not my job,” we
whisper to ourselves. “That person
really needs Jesus. Someone ought to
tell her about the Lord.” Here, too,
it may help to visualize yourself as that person
living in spiritual blindness. Think of
how grateful you’d be for that one person who would take the time to share the
things of God with you. Think of your
eternal gratitude toward that one Christian who shared with you the life and
love of Jesus!
For me personally, reaching out to help those who are emotionally
wounded, physically hurting, or spiritually down-and-out (especially if a
series of bad choices brought them to that point,) is sometimes a
challenge. More than once I’ve passed by
on the other side as the priest and temple worker in Jesus’ story. That’s when Jesus reminds me: it is for
these people that you are on this earth.
I put you here to help them. I
want them to see Me in you!
Think of all the
folks the Lord has put into your life over the years. Ponder all the blessings you have received
through them. Pause to consider what may
have happened had they not been there for you.
Now ask the Lord to
open your eyes to see that one person who has recently crossed your path by
divine design. Ask Him to open the
windows of your heart to respond to that individual’s needs. Seek His Spirit that you may courageously and
convincingly share the words of eternal life so that that one lost soul will
someday be in heaven with you.
You and I are on this
earth by God’s design and for divine purpose.
We aren’t here to save the world.
But neither are we here to merely take up space. We are on this earth at this precise time to
bring glory to God by living out His life in serving others.
Two thousand years
ago, Jesus responded to the needs of people – physical needs as well as spiritual
needs – when His feet trekked and tramped the dusty trails. But today He walks in our shoes and in the
shoes of all Christians. He occupies our
bodies and helps and heals through our hands.
He lives in us, and lives out His life through us.
So when you and I are
called upon to help heal a hurting heart, or speak salvation to a sin-sick
soul, know that it is Jesus in us who responds and it is Jesus in us who is glorified.
Thank you, Jesus!
Pastor Carl R. Henkel
The Bygone Quilting Bee
The other day I was watching an old
episode of the TV series Christy.
The series is about a young schoolteacher who takes a position teaching at a
Quaker mission in the
Then
I thought, hey, wait a minute. The spirit of the bygone quilting bee exists in
our Scrap & Stamp Saturday. We sit around a table to work on our cards or
scrapbooks, listen to Christian music on the radio, chat about what's going on
in our lives, share supplies and advice, and just enjoy each other's company--a
modern-day adaptation of an age-old tradition! How cool is that?
With that in mind, I want to invite you to join us for our next
Scrap & Stamp Saturday on July 16, beginning at
9:00 a.m. Crafters of all levels of experience are welcome. We don't have a
specific project to work on this time, so you'll have a chance to begin or
continue a project of your own. Call Keri at 651.488.2362 with any questions.
A Computer was
something on TV
From a science fiction show of note
A Window was something you hated to clean
And Ram was the father of a goat.
Meg was the name of my girlfriend
And Gig was a job for the nights
Now they all mean different things
And that really Mega
Bytes.
An Application was for employment
A Program was a TV show
A Cursor used profanity
A Keyboard was a piano.
Compress was something you did to the
garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you Unzipped
anything in public
You'd be in jail for a while.
Log On was adding wood to the fire
Hard Drive was a long trip on the road
A Mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a Backup happened to your commode.
Cut is what you did with a pocketknife
Paste you did with glue
A Web was a spider's home
And a Virus was the flu.
I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the Memory in my
head.
I hear nobody's been killed in a Computer
crash.
But when it happened they wish they were
dead.